The Terminator 2 license was an interesting one for DST to pick up. One of the most influential and successful films of its generation, at the dawn of Hollywood’s obsession with CGI. The line of Minimates didn’t do badly in terms of sales, certainly not up there with those of Ghostbusters, but sadly not successful enough for TRU to be satisfied with it. The proposed wave 2 was cut down by TRU’s refusal to stock another T2 wave, leaving only the comic/specialty store wave to take care of business. Thus only 3 of the 4 mooted packs ever came out. The character choice for this set is good as both characters are taken from the same point in the film.

Packaging

The Terminator 2 two-pack packaging is the same for this wave as it was for wave one. A nice, bold title graphic, control art, and on the back a showing of all the figures (including the liquid-metal T-1000 and a battle-damaged Endoskeleton that would have been the TRU exclusive).

The Figures

Asylum Assault T-1000

The bar for T-1000 Minimates has been set pretty high by the “final battle” version of the T-1000 in wave 1 in terms of sculpted, scene specific extras and overall playability and fun, but Asylum Assault T-1000 has met the challenge. Heading to Pescadero State Hospital, figuring out that his target John will try to rescue his mother from the asylum, the T-1000 uses his advanced body to pursue his targets. The T-1000 uses his arms as metal poles to lever open a lift his quarry has escaped in, but Arnie then shoots him in the face, blowing his head apart. And that’s the figure we get.

I waxed lyrical about the unique head sculpt on the last T-1000, and this one is every bit as good. Very screen accurate, it looks awesome, and is actually a very detailed piece. Stunning really when you think that there is no chance that these unique T-1000 pieces like the heads and the blown up torso will ever get a chance to be reused elsewhere – they are just too specific to this character. Like the other T-1000, this one gets a second head with a hairpiece. This is our first “regular” faced T-1000, and whilst the likeness isn’t that good to Robert Patrick (he has a very long, thin face, totally not suited to be a Minimate head) it has a steely gaze similar to the “hole in head” T-1000 face.

His outfit is the police officer uniform, similar but not identical to the last figure. The obvious difference is on the chest, where his liquid metal body is damaged by shotgun blasts, however this version includes a separate belt piece but omits the yellow piping on the legs. And he has giant metal hands. Actually, that might be the most obvious difference! The hands look great, they plug in to the arm holes securely enough and add a massive amount of playability to the figure. Hopefully the MAX line will one day allow us to get a police car that he can chase and jump on to using these hands. Oh, and a motorcycle for Biker Arnie. A boy can dream, right?

He gets regular hands to use as an alternative look with the regular head, and another silver pistol. Again, this should be black but I’m sure longtime collectors will be able to scrounge a black one from somewhere.

In conclusion, much like the other T-1000, this figure is a mini work of art and highly recommended as an example of how far Minimates have come in replicating their source material. So much work has gone into this figure and it totally pays off.

MMC Score – 10 out of 10

Inmate Sarah Connor

Our first look at a Sarah Connor – a character sorely missed in the first wave. Linda Hamilton’s buffed-up portrayal of the waitress-turned-mother to the saviour of the world was a highlight of the film. She didn’t look out of place between the two titanic Terminators. But first, she had to escape from the mental hospital she’d been put in after jabbering too many times about “killer robots from the future”.

The facial expression on Asylum Sarah Connor captures all of her blind rage, her determination and her desire to protect her son. Teeth bared in a ferocious snarl, she certainly doesn’t fall into the usual pattern of bland female Minimate faces and is all the better for it. The ponytail hairpiece is certainly suitable for many scenes in Pescadero State Hospital, but it would have been nice to get a “hair down, unkempt and matted to head” look for her also.

Her outfit is very simple – she was in an asylum after all, just a white T-Shirt and tan sweat-pants with a drawstring detailed on the pelvis piece. Also Sarah is one of the few Minimates to have flesh-coloured feet, as she was barefoot in these scenes in the film. It would have been nice to see some concession to the muscular build she had developed (and was seen developing in the film itself) but obviously would be hard to get some ripped detailing on the Minimate arms or shoulders. Some pec detailing on the chest block (as well as the breast detailing) would have been possible though.

Inmate Sarah Connor is accessorised with a nightstick/truncheon. If you’ve seen the film you’ll know how painfully hard she hits with it so it’s a very suitable accessory for her to have. The handle is a little thin to fit snugly in her hand, it keeps spinning around as it’s not being grasped properly, but this is a minor nitpick.

In conclusion, this figure won’t be the best version of Sarah we see in this line, but taken as a screen accurate look for a specific scene, she hits the spot nicely, if a little simply in terms of detail.